Silicon Valley technology firms should take the lead in defending the private sector against cyber attacks, says Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official, now founder of Red Branch Consulting.

Silicon Valley has a “responsibility” to defend against cyber attacks – but are largely rising to the challenge, says Rosenzweig, author of“”Cyberwarfare; How Conflicts in Cyberspace are Challenging America and Changing the World.”

“To some degree, they were getting a pass,” Rosenzweig said in an interview with Associated Press.
“If a car manufacturer made a car that was routinely able to be stolen, they’d be sued. If software is made with gaps that are a liability, they bear some responsibility, and in recent years there’s been a sea change in hi-tech firms accepting that responsibility.”

Rosenzweig’s comments come as President Obama meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in California – a meeting at which cyber issues are expected to be on the agenda.

Earlier this year President Barack Obama signed an executive order to improve information-sharing between companies and branches of government, saying, “”We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.”

A report in May suggested that American companies are facing an “unprecedented” onslaught of data theft, costing “hundreds of billions”, according to a report by Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a private group which includes former high-ranking government officials such as Dennis Blair, the former U.S. Director of National Intelligence.